A pair of comics invite a guest or two on to talk about a movie they’ve all watched.Along with the discussion of the movie, they give a recipe for a drink that they’ve somehow linked to the movie and, of course, a drinking game for the movie.

Technical Details

Episodes drop every Thursday and typically run a bit over an hour.The show isn’t tagged Explicit, but there’s a fair amount of f-bombs in a typical episode, so just be warned before you crank this one up via your iPod dock in the car when your kids are in the back seat.The show is steadily approaching its 200th episode.iTunes always has their most recent thirty-six episodes (is that an oddly specific number or what?) available; to access the full archive, hit up the show’s website itself.

What About It

I’m a teetotaler, so I wasn’t sure how I’d take to the show, but I enjoy it very much actually.The section where the show walks you through the drink recipe is pretty well lost on me, but even those of us who don’t drink can enjoy a funny drinking game, right?The movies chosen are typically offbeat, weird choices, which makes the show a lot of fun with plenty of opportunity for the hosts and guests to demonstrate their ability with sarcastic quips and jokes.A lot of times, they’re talking about movies that I’ve always kind of wanted to see but also kind of wanted to never see, if you get my drift, and since the show goes through the entire movie plot (so, skip the episodes if they’re talking about a movie you want to see without spoilers), listening to the episode is like watching the movie with none of the negatives of actually watching it.The show is funny and often insightful about the films.At the half point of every episode, there’s sometimes quiz about a subject that somehow relates to the film in question.This little game is fun to listen to and see if you can beat the hosts to the right answers.When the show breaks out of the mold to do something special, it’s a lot of fun.For their hundredth episode, for instance, they did a full, feature-length commentary for Dr. No, ala Rifftrax, which was cool.All in all, this one’s right in my wheelhouse; people talking humorously about interesting and strange movies.There are better movie podcasts out there and even better comedy movie podcasts, but there aren’t many, maybe just a couple.This is one of the best, so give it a shot if you’re into movies; I think you’ll take to it.

Essential If

You’re a hopeless film buff/alcoholic.

Avoid Like the Plague If

You’re on the wagon maybe?

Best Entry Point

Well, I’m going to recommend a few.First of all, I want to recommend an event they do every year in which they dedicate the entire month of October to horror movies.In 2013, they did a really interesting series for this in which they looked at two movies an episode, a Universal horror classic and the remake.So, in the first one, HORROR OCTORBOR: Frankenstein (1931) / Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), they talk about the original Karloff Frankenstein and then Branagh’s remake.They do this for The Mummy, The Wolf Man, Dracula, etc.Those are all really great.In October 2014, they hit their third year doing the special October marathons, so they looked at third installments of classic horror films: Nightmare on Elm Street III, Halloween III, The Omen III (The Omen episode is particularly wonderful).And just let me give you one more that is a good example of how good the show can be when the hosts and guests actually really love the movie in question.I was a bit hesitant to listen to their episode on The Lost Weekend, because I love the movie and I was afraid they’d rip it to shreds for being dated.I was pleasantly surprised to hear a very serious (though with some jokes of course) discussion of the film, which everyone on the show loved.And it was interesting to hear a podcast dedicated to the pleasures of drinking wrestle with the specter of alcoholism.All in all, it’s one of the more serious episodes I’ve heard and a really interesting one.Anyway, that’s . . . nine episodes, all very, very good ones, so that’s more than enough to get you in tune with this podcast’s flavor.

4 stars.

Next time, it’s a daily podcast that’s also the shortest podcast I’ve posted about so far.And, yes, it’s reason number one on the “Thank God for American Public Media” list.